Dad's Kidney Stolen: I'll Make Them Pay

The operating room doors had barely closed when my aunt, Ellen Hammond, rushed over with my cousin, Hazel Irwin.

Aunt Ellen grabbed my collar, spittle flying into my face. "Stefan Hammond, have you lost your mind? If anything happens to your uncle, I'll bring your whole family down!"

I pried her hand off and brushed the nonexistent dust from my collar. "Aunt Ellen, watch what you say. My dad is still lying in the room next door. He'd be heartbroken if he heard you cursing him like that."

Aunt Ellen's face flushed red instantly. "Cut the crap! Go tell the doctor to switch the anesthesia plan back right now!"

I held out my hands with an innocent look. "It's too late. The anesthesiologist is already in there. Besides, why should I change it? That kidney was supposed to be transplanted into my dad in the first place. How could you people steal what belongs to someone else and act like you're in the right?"

She got so furious that she raised her hand to hit me. "You!"

A nurse hurried over and stopped her. "This is a hospital. Please keep your voices down and don't make a scene!"

Aunt Ellen jabbed a finger at me and gritted her teeth. "Just you wait!"

She turned around and headed off to find hospital administrators, trying to pressure me. I ignored her completely and headed to the office of Dad's attending physician, Lachlan Harding.

Dr. Harding adjusted his glasses, looking uneasy. "Stefan, our hospital really did make a mistake here. When your uncle came in with your dad's identification documents, we ran our checks and everything seemed to clear, so we—"

I cut him off. "Dr. Harding, I'm not here to assign blame. I just wanted to confirm one thing. Legally speaking, does the final say over all of my dad's medical decisions rest with me?"

Dr. Harding paused for a moment, then nodded. "That's correct. You're listed as the primary responsible party. Any surgery or treatment plan requires your signed consent before it can take effect."

I felt reassured. "That's good."

When I walked out of the office, Aunt Ellen was heading toward me alongside someone who looked like a hospital administrator.

The administrator spoke to me in a stiff, scripted tone. "We understand how you feel, but the surgery has already started. For the safety of the patient—"

I scoffed. "Patient safety? You casually gave a critically ill patient's life-saving kidney to a complete stranger. Is that what you call caring about patient safety?"

The administrator's expression darkened.

Aunt Ellen jumped in to stir the pot. "Don't listen to his nonsense! We're the real family here! He's just jealous of us and trying to cause trouble!"

I didn't bother arguing with them and pulled out my phone to call the police. "Hello, is this the police? I'd like to report a crime. Someone at Central Hospital fraudulently used another person's identity to obtain a transplant organ. That would count as fraud, right?"

The moment the call connected, both Aunt Ellen and the administrator went pale.

The police arrived quickly. After asking a few brief questions about the situation, the officer brought all of us into an office.

Aunt Ellen insisted that Dad had willingly given the kidney to my uncle, Spencer Irwin. "My brother was so sick that he wasn't thinking clearly anymore. He told me himself that giving the kidney to him would've been a waste and that he'd rather it go to my husband."

I let out an exasperated laugh. "My dad has been in a coma for two days. How did he personally tell you anything? Did he come to you in a dream?"

The officer clearly didn't believe her nonsense either. He turned to me and asked, "Do you have any evidence proving that the kidney belongs to your dad?"

I immediately pulled up all the relevant documents on my phone, including the waiting list records, payment notices, and Dad's diagnosis reports.

I said, "Officer, this is three years' worth of waiting records. Every matching notification came with a text message. My dad suffered a lot while waiting for this kidney, so how can they just take it from him like this without any explanation?"